As many as 12 maritime accidents, including five drowning cases were reported last week, a Dubai Police Sea Rescue official said.
The accidents took place across various areas in Dubai and were mainly a result of non-compliance of safety measures at sea, according to Major Yahya Mohammad, Head of Sea Rescue at the Dubai Police Rescue Department.
“Most of the cases of drowning occurred at night because of the non-compliance with regulations and guidelines governing the excercise of seafaring,” he explained.
There are also instances when the cases are not reported in time. “Some cases are reported as late as five hours from the time when the accident took place, which hampers rescue operations,” he observed.
Revealing the details of the accidents that took place over the last week Major Yahya said “on May 23 a person was rescued when he fell from a sailing boat in Umm Suquim. Our officers managed to save him because we were notified in time.”
Keeping the rescue team busy, a boat was reported to be sinking due to a leak off Dubai Creek on May 25, which was repaired in time and saved by the rescue team.
In the third incident of the week, an eight-year-old was reported missing in an open beach and lifeguards were able to save him after an extensive search of nearly 30 minutes.
Report of a sinking boat once again took the rescue team to Dubai Creek, where, Major Yahya, informed that the boat was found to be overloaded with 150 tonnes of cargo causing a leak in the boat.
Rescue officers, after an operation of several hours managed to closed the opening from where the water was leaking in and saved the boat.
Adding that there was another boat sinking accident on May 27, Major Yahya informed that most boat accidents happen due to overloading and poor maintenance of boats.
Three more drowning cases were reported in the last two days, one near Burj Al Arab, another at Al Mamzar beach and last at Jebel Ali port.
In the Burj Al Arab case the rescuers managed to fish a person out alive but in critical condition, while in the Mamzar case which was reported half an hour after the first incident the rescuers unfortunately found the person dead.
In the third incident, which took place at the Jebel Ali port yesterday, a car fell into the waters along with the driver. The driver was found dead when the rescue team fished out the vehicle with the help of a crane.
Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.
